A story of struggle and success.
by Martha Alvarez
Trevino Orta’s play, Braided Sorrow, which recently concluded its run on October 18th at Denver’s El Centro Su Teatro, on 4725 High St., is a sure sign of great things to come from this artist.
The story begins with a small introduction of other stories about the young women who keep disappearing from the city of Juarez. These girls go to work in American-owned factories that are easily found all along the Texas border. They begin working, and after a couple of weeks they mysteriously disappear and are later found violated, murdered, or mutilated. For years, everyone has been trying to get to the core of these disappearances.
The protagonist, Alma, goes to work in Juarez in a circuit board factory. She lives with her cousin and they both work together from sunrise to sunset. Earning only $4.75 per hour, they are still happy to have a job where they make more money than they were making in their home town.
The story starts out with a beautiful family portrait. Alma lives with her loving brother (Aaron Vieyra), and her worried aunt and cousin. But then the story takes a tragic turn, and Alma’s cousin becomes pregnant, leaving Alma to work on her own.
Alma is a beautiful 16-year-old girl who spends her day walking to and from work warding of creepy old men and rapists. She cuts her long, beautiful hair to make herself less attractive and avoid trouble. This keeps her somewhat out of danger, but she still has to worry about all the things that are going wrong in her life. She is having a really hard time supporting her family, and is about to give up when la Llorona, the spirit of a woman who spends her after-life hunting after her lost children, arrives to protect her.
I was surprised to find out that la Llorona was used as a helping hand in this play. Usually she is portrayed as a symbol of horror, or the warning for a sad upcoming event. I think this brought an interesting twist to the story, and made it more appealing for everyone to watch. La Llorona tells Alma that the city is “unnatural”, and that she needs to do everything possible to protect herself.
The simple plot, setting, and characters of this story make it sweet and dramatic. The set is simple, made up of small details like signs, broken toys, homes that are half built, and barbed wire. It’s an unsettling story, yet easy to understand, and easy to keep up with it. But the characters are amazing, and they make up for the sparseness of the set. I loved this story, and will surely continue to follow Trevino Orta’s writing.
